CSUSB film fans unite!

The Society of Student Filmmakers (SSF) might be seen as the poodles of the film and production scene here at CSUSB, but they are quietly securing their status among the big dogs.

The purpose of SSF is to touch base on the ideas of commercial media and to understand cinematography’s underlying characteristics.

With the help from their President Alex Hedstrom, they have been branching out and looking forward to many future filmmaking opportunities. “We teach [members] how to ‘read’ movies and promote them as an art,” said Hedstrom.

SSF currently consists of 12 members, not including their large online base. Though they are a small bunch, they still manage to work on major projects such as a piece for the San Bernardino Valley Film Festival and even a music video for a local band.

SSF Vice President Sean Mason has contributed a great deal of knowledge and understanding to the club. He continues to share his experience in many scriptwriting projects as well as a handful of internships, including one with Will Ferrell’s production company Funny or Die.

He is even seen as “the Yoda of the group” by Secretary and Recruiting Officer Ken Perry. The message that is delivered through a movie is highly appreciated by Perry. He gets his inspiration for film-making from watching countless documentaries. “I love to watch documentaries because of the effect and change it has on the world,” said Perry.

If you have ever taken a film class with professor Rod Metts, it is very likely that you have seen a video produced by Hedstrom or written by Mason. Metts has shown SSF’s work in many of his classes to display examples of formal scriptwriting, commercial media and the art and craft of film production.

The unconditional support by Metts has led to much of the club’s exposure. “We’ve had students who aren’t even communication majors [who] have made it into a hobby,” said Hedstrom.

The club also encourages their members to attend workshops in order to further digest the concepts of film-making. “We try to teach our members to embrace the meaningful, passionate art in film-making,” said Perry.

Hedstrom has many plans in the works that he hopes will better establish the club on campus. “We are still building a force that will continue on [throughout the] next year or two,” said Hedstrom.

Mason and Hedstrom also have personal works under construction, like the 25-minute mini-movie, “The Macguffin.” You can watch some of Mason’s material on his video channel, Vimeo.com/seanmas.

Be on the lookout for the group’s future microfilm works that are currently in production as well as additional music videos.